A book review from The Movie Snob:

Shake Hands With the Devil, by Lt. Gen. Roméo Dallaire (2003). After seeing Hotel Rwanda, I wanted to know more about what happened in the Rwandan genocide of 1994. Then I saw a favorable review of this book, by the Canadian general in charge of the U.N. force stationed in Rwanda at the time. It is a gripping read. A tiny U.N. force was sent to Rwanda in 1993-94 because a long civil war (between the rebel Tutsis and the incumbent Hutus) was about to end with the installation of a new interim government; the U.N. force was supposed to act as sort of a dampening rod in case problems cropped up. Unknown to anyone, extremists in the Hutu camp were plotting all along to sabotage the peace accords and launch a genocide against the Tutsis. Dallaire and his handful of soldiers did what they could to rescue some of the targeted victims, but Dallaire's constant pressure on the U.N. to send a substantial force that could actually stop the killing yielded virtually no results. And so 800,000 Rwandans were killed in about 100 days, before the rebel army finally conquered almost the entire country. Dallaire's grief and frustration are palpable, and the foreward to the book reveals that his horrifying experience as a bystander to genocide left him shattered and suicidal. Highly recommended.